This page is a compendium of items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, damnable prevarications, rants and amusing anecdotes - about LAUSD and/or public education that didn't - or haven't yet - made it into the "real" 4LAKids blog and weekly e-newsletter at http://www.4LAKids.blogspot.com . 4LAKidsNews will be updated at arbitrary random intervals.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

RETIREE BENEFITS BECOME A FLASHPOINT IN THE BATTLE BETWEEN CHARTERS AND TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS

by Howard Blume | Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1r6Y4Ij

April 17, 2016::A Woodland Hills charter
school recently made an unusual offer to its veteran teachers: We'll give you
$30,000 if you return to the Los Angeles Unified School District before you
retire.

It wasn't the teachers that El Camino Real Charter High
School wanted to get rid of. It was the cost of their retirement benefits.

The school's cost-shifting strategy is one of many
flashpoints between traditional public schools and the independent charters
they compete with for students and money.

In this case, it's a battle over who should pay for an
employee's health benefits after retirement — the charter school or the larger
school district.

Financial challenges are all-but-universal in the education
world, and retiree benefits are particularly costly. L.A. Unified's unfunded
liability for employee benefits has escalated to $13.6 billion.

The El Camino plan would add from $2.5 million to $4.2
million to that deficit, based on district estimates. The idea is that teachers
would spend their careers in the charter school, but later transfer to LAUSD to
qualify for the huge institution's retirement benefits.

Except the district has decided not to play ball.

Teachers who return to the district, simply to retire, are
not entitled to district retirement benefits, general counsel David Holmquist
said.

"This would be an obligation that in my view would be
the charter's responsibility," Holmquist said.

Officials reached that determination Friday, and, if that
decision holds, then the recent retirees would have to turn to El Camino for
retirement benefits after all.

The dispute is notable in part because of an effort by
advocates to sharply increase the number of charter schools in Los Angeles.

Under that proposal, at least 260 additional charters would
open over the next eight years, resulting in about half of L.A. Unified School
District students being enrolled in these independently managed public schools.
These backers argue that more charters will give parents more choices and
improve education in the city.

But opponents say a huge increase in the number of charters
could push the district to the brink of insolvency by draining resources and
leaving behind students who are the most difficult and expensive to educate.

Charters are independently operated public schools and
exempt from some rules that govern traditional, district-run campuses. Most
charters are nonunion, and are not bound to match district benefits.

But El Camino did not want its teachers to feel as though
they were giving up something when the campus left district control five years
ago. So teachers retained their union representation.

L.A. Unified and the teachers union also agreed to give El
Camino teachers up to five years to return to the district.

"This is a charter school that did at least try to do
right by teachers," said Monique Morrissey, an economist at the
left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which is based in Washington. "It
did put a premium from the get-go on retaining unionized, professional teachers
rather than taking the low road — using low-paid, unprofessional, nonunionized
teachers and churning through them."

As the teacher's five-year window to return to the district
drew near, El Camino administrators concluded that it was now or never to
lighten its retirement burden.

Teachers with 17 or more years of experience could get
$30,000 if they left and retired through L.A. Unified rather than El Camino.
Teachers with fewer years of service qualified for reduced amounts.

According to L.A. Unified, 10 individuals with teaching
credentials have submitted paperwork to return to L.A. Unified. Eight of those
also indicated that they plan to retire.

Other employees also were eligible for smaller buyouts. Two
administrators and two nonteaching staff members took advantage, according to
El Camino.

Whatever happens, El Camino remains on the hook for most of
its workers, a potential liability of more than $40 million, said Chief
Business Officer Marshall Mayotte.

For health and life sciences teacher Evalyn Kallman, the
timing of the buyout was right. She started teaching in her 20s and has worked
well over 30 years.

"Even if I work another few years," she said,
"it won't make a significant difference in the amount of retirement I get."

The district already is paying $1 billion a year— from a
$7.1-billion budget for benefits to both current and retired employees. This
number is expected to rise sharply with an older, longer-living workforce. And
money to pay for these costs has been limited by shrinking enrollment — in
large measure because of the growth of charters.

"I do think it's unfair — the idea that we are saddled
with this obligation when another employer is benefiting from the
services," Holmquist said of El Camino's plan. Which is not to say the
strategy's wisdom is lost on him. "I think it's a smart business decision
on their part," he said.

_________________

LA Times Editor's note: Education Matters receives funding
from a number of foundations, including one or more mentioned in this article.
The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles
administer grants from the Baxter Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the
California Endowment and the Wasserman Foundation. Under terms of the grants,
The Times retains complete control over editorial content.